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Autonomously Generating An Ideal Kernel Configuration

04-10-2010, 11:00 PM

Phoronix: Autonomously Generating An Ideal Kernel Configuration

While most Linux users are fine with just using the kernel supplied by their distribution vendor, there are some enthusiasts and professional users who end up tweaking their kernel configuration extensively for their needs, particularly if they are within a corporate environment where the very best performance and reliability is demanded for a particular workload...

Gentoo Linux users have been by modifying .config file settings by hand to get improved kernel performance for a long time. I do not think automating it will do much for Linux performance, although this will probably save time for Linux users that were already doing this sort of thing.

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Gentoo Linux users have been by modifying .config file settings by hand to get improved kernel performance for a long time. I do not think automating it will do much for Linux performance, although this will probably save time for Linux users that were already doing this sort of thing.

Gentoo VS save time

if i use Gentoo my time is 'burn'

Phantom circuit Sequence Reducer Dyslexia

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Michael I think your work is very useful for the linux environment.
The kernel developers can look for performance regressions in the Linux kernel with phoromatic, and now distribution maintainers can see what are the best kernel configuration options for the kernel.

Hope more people involved in linux development have a look at phoromatic.

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As was said above, as a Gentoo user, I've been configuring mine manually for years but I still occasionally get caught out when I forget to enable an option that's really required. I have found that this is the part that new Gentoo users find the most intimidating. Having said that, I think it's a great way to get a tour of the Linux insides and find out just what it's doing for you.

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Would it be possible to create a utility that looks at the output of lspci and lsusb and creates a simple cut down kernel config with only the bare minimum required switched on?

Your new module could then use this as the basis for the testing, it would also massively decrease the time it takes to recompile each kernel

Regards

Mike

I'm sure I could come up with something to make it work like that to optimize it even further in terms of what modules are needed based upon the current hardware, but I probably wouldn't end up investing that much time into this module unless it becomes financed by a PTS Commercial client.